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NHS track faces stiff competition at Twilight Relays

Tigers earn some personal best times, but none finish in the upper echelon at Portland meet

The Newberg High School track team ventured to Portland on Friday for the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays. While it wasn't exactly a successful day for the Tigers, the team got to see how it stacked up against various teams from around the region in a variety of events.

For the boys, junior Riley Beecroft had the best finish of any Tiger runner, placing ninth in the 100 with a time of 11.26 seconds. The difference between sixth and ninth was a narrow 0.04 seconds. Senior Matthew Larson finished 30th at 11.64 seconds, giving an idea of the competitive nature of the race.

A large portion of the overall event included relay races, in which Newberg struggled to compete with some of the better teams from Oregon and Washington. Still, though, the Tigers set some personal records and made progress on a number of fronts.

A team of Larson, Beecroft, Kyle Hatch and Mason Darling finished 15th in the 4 x 100 with a time of 44.14 seconds. Larson, Beecroft, Darling and Aidan Rozcicha placed 16th in the 4 x 200, running it in 1:34.01.

The throwing events didn't go so well, but senior Jake Thompson finished 15th in the long jump (20 feet 9 inches) and 14th in the triple jump (41-09). It wasn't a strong performance by the boys when compared with how they fared at the Summit meet, but the same athletes stood out as the best finishers among the Tigers.

For the girls, a quality relay performance likely gives them confidence heading into state competition in a few weeks.

Junior Rilee Carstensen and senior Anna Secrist finished 20th and 35th in their individual events, the 100 hurdles and regular 100, and were part of a handful of relay squads.

Carstensen and Secrist joined Grace Umfleet and Kalani Aquipel in the 4 x 100, finishing 13th in 50.18 seconds. In the 4 x 200, Aquipel was switched out for Sidney Grabow, and the Tigers finished seventh in 1:47.98.

Grace Chlumak joined that same relay trio in the 4 x 400 and the Tigers placed 10th, running it in 4:06.94.

Senior Lala Frketich made her mark in the throwing events as well, placing eighth in her signature event – the javelin – with a toss of 121-07. She threw the discus just over 100 feet, good enough for 27th place in that event.

After recovering from the Twilight meet, Newberg hosted Pacific Conference foe Century on Tuesday after press time. The team looks ahead to the Pacific Conference District Championships May 15-17 at George Fox University, followed by the state championships at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham.

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